The Governing Board believes that absenteeism, whatever the cause may be an early warning sign of poor academic achievement and may put students at risk of dropping out of school. The Board desires to ensure that all students attend school in accordance with the state's compulsory education law and take full advantage of educational opportunities provided by the district.

The Superintendent or designee shall establish a system to accurately track student attendance in order to identify individual students who are chronic absentees and truants, as defined in law and administrative regulation, and to identify patterns of absence throughout the district. He/she shall provide the Board with data on school attendance, chronic absence, and truancy rates districtwide, for each school, and disaggregated for each numerically significant student subgroup as defined in Education Code 52052. Such data shall be used in the development of annual goals and specific actions for student attendance and engagement to be included in the district's local control and accountability plan and other applicable school and district plans.

The Superintendent or designee shall develop strategies that focus on prevention of attendance problems, which may include, but are not limited to, efforts to provide a safe and positive school environment, relevant and engaging learning experiences, school activities that help develop students' feelings of connectedness with the school, school-based health services, and incentives and rewards to recognize students who achieve excellent attendance or demonstrate significant improvement in attendance. The Superintendent or designee also shall develop strategies that enable early outreach to students as soon as they show signs of poor attendance.

The Superintendent or designee shall work with students, parents/guardians, school staff, and community agencies, as appropriate, to identify factors contributing to chronic absence and truancy.

Interventions for students with serious attendance problems shall be designed to meet the specific needs of the student and may include, but are not limited to, health care referrals, transportation assistance, counseling for mental or emotional difficulties, academic supports, efforts to address school or community safety concerns, discussion with the student and parent/guardian about their attitudes regarding schooling, or other strategies to remove identified barriers to school attendance. The Superintendent or designee may collaborate with child welfare services, law enforcement, courts, public health care agencies, other government agencies, and/or medical, mental health, and oral health care providers to make alternative educational programs and support services available for students and families.

Students who are identified as truants shall be subject to the interventions specified in law and administrative regulation.

A student's truancy, tardiness, or other absence from school shall not be the sole basis for his/her suspension or expulsion. Alternative strategies and positive reinforcement for attendance shall be used whenever possible.

The Superintendent or designee shall periodically report to the Board regarding the district's progress in improving student attendance rates for all students and for each numerically significant student population. Such information shall be used to evaluate the effectiveness of strategies implemented to reduce chronic absence and truancy and to make changes as needed. As appropriate, the Superintendent or designee shall engage school staff n program evaluation and improvement and in the determination of how to best allocate available community resources.

School Attendance Review Board

In accordance with law and administrative regulation, habitual truants may be referred to a school attendance review board (SARB).

The Board may submit a nomination to the County Superintendent of Schools for a person who will serve on the county SARB as a representative of school districts. (Education Code 48321)

The Board shall appoint members of the district's SARB, who may include, but are not limited to, a parent/guardian as well as representatives of the district, county probation department, county welfare department, county office of education, law enforcement agencies, community-based youth service centers, school guidance personnel, child welfare and attendance personnel, school or county health care personnel, and school, county, or community mental health personnel. (Education Code 48321)

The district's SARB shall operate in accordance with Education Code 48320-48325 and procedures established by the Superintendent or designee.